Katherine Kane (New Earth)
Renée again left town, irritating Kate, though she agreed to help Renée in tracking down a copy of the Crime Bible, being sold via the Penguin. The book was actually part of the Lessons that the Order of Stone was attempting to teach Renée, and she and Kate fight over the book. In the end, as Renée claims she only wants it to protect Kate. Kate tells her that Renée never asked what Kate wanted, but lets her take the book. Final Crisis During the Final Crisis, Kane was one of the millions who fell under the influence of the Anti-Life Equation , and became a member of the Female Furies. Batman Reborn After the Crisis, Kane continues to act as Batwoman and, with the new Batman's blessing, investigates the 13 chapters of the Crime Syndicate in Gotham, and their new High Priestess, Alice. Her father, Colonel Kane, assists Kate in her role as Batwoman, supplying her with technology and training, as do Kyle Abbot and two other shape-shifters, who themselves the True Believers. When Alice kidnaps Kate's father and plans to unleash a toxic gas over Gotham, Abbot commandeers a plane to stop her. Kate manages to stop the weapon and save her father, but in the final fight, Alice falls from the plane to her death, refusing to take Kate's hand and be saved. Before she falls, Alice tells Kate "You have our father's eyes." Battle of the Cowl and Investigatons Following the events of Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl, in which Bruce Wayne has supposedly died and is replaced by Dick Grayson, Kate becomes the lead of Detective Comics from issue 854 onwards. She's seen investigating the arrival of a new leader of the Religion of Crime to Gotham. She briefly meets Batman (it is intentionally left ambiguous whether or not it is Dick Grayson or Bruce Wayne)http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060924-WB-Rucka.html to discuss her findings. Kate demonstrates greater knowledge of the Religion of Crime, and even corrects Batman by saying there's 13 and not 12 covens of the religion in Gotham. Batman concedes the case to her, and comments on the length of her hair (though panels on the same page reveal the long red wig hides her actual hair, styled short). Aspects of her personal life are also revealed, including her relationship with her ex-colonel father; serving as Batwoman's ally, whom she addresses as "sir." The strain of her late night vigilante activity has also taken a toll on her romantic relationships. Her lateness and night time absences are interpreted by her girlfriend as an on the side liaison with another woman. She breaks the relationship off as she believes Kate is not ready to commit to an exclusive relationship. A past traumatic incident is also alluded to which she claims still haunts her. As she vaguely describes the experience, her face is shown superimposed on the page over a restrained girl with a bag over her head. She later tracks down the new leader of the Religion of Crime: an elaborately costumed woman named Alice. Over the course of the conflict that ensues, Batwoman observes that Alice only speaks in quotations from Lewis Carroll; believing herself to be Alice Liddell. Alice denies a connection to the Mad Hatter. Justice League When the Justice League of America splits up following Bruce Wayne's death and a disastrous confrontation with the Shadow Cabinet, Green Lantern Hal Jordan leads a group of superheroes to Gotham in order to track down the supervillain known as Prometheus. Kate is shown stalking the heroes from the rooftops after they encounter Clayface. Batwoman later contacts both Leagues at the JLA Watchtower, informing them she encountered and engaged supervillain Delores Winters, who mysteriously collapsed and died right as she was about to be taken into custody. The heroes request that Kate bring the body up to them, but she declines, telling them that she is much too busy due to a rash of criminal uprisings going on in Gotham. Firestorm is then sent to retrieve the corpse from Kate and bring it to the team, who discover that Dolores was forced into fighting by means of a mind control device. Later, Batwoman is kidnapped by cultists and taken to London in order for her to once again be sacrificed. She is sealed within a coffin and taken underground to the last remaining Lazarus Pit in order for the ritual to begin. She is saved by the timely intervention of Dick Grayson and British superheroes Knight and Squire. After learning that Grayson plans on placing Bruce Wayne's corpse into the pit in order to revive him, Kate strongly protests, but he simply ignores her. Batman, Inc. Sometime later, Batwoman was deployed to Argentina to help Batman and El Gaucho track down an old criminal genius named Dr. Daedalus. There, she encountered the British Special Agent known as the Hood. Together, the four heroes fought against El Gaucho's nemesis, Scorpiana, who was finally defeated by Batwoman. They then found an old man dressed in Dr. Daedalus' costume, but soon discovered he was only an old man with Alzheimer's. Soon after, Batwoman returned to Gotham. Flashpoint When Reverse-Flash altered history in order to eliminate the Flashes, Kate Kane's own history was changed. In that altered timeline, she was in the US military as part of Team-7, serving alongside Cole Cash, John Stewart (who never became a Green Lantern), Lt. Reid, Sgt. Rock, Lady Blackhawk, and Gunner. The team was sent to attack jihadist strongholds in Afghanistan, but were wiped out during a raid on Sudhaar, with only Cash surviving due to the intervention of Britannia. DCnU Following the events of Flashpoint, the timeline was altered once again. Kate Kane was the survivor of a brutal kidnapping that left her mother dead and her twin sister lost to her. She followed in her father's footsteps, vowing to serve her country. She attended West Point Academy until she was expelled under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' She and her cousin Elizabeth Kane began working as costumed the costumed vigilantes Batwoman and Flamebird in Gotham City. | Powers = | Abilities = * Espionage * Gadgetry * Gymnastics * Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic) * Military Protocol * Surveillance * Throwing | Recommended = * 52 * Batwoman: Elegy * Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood * Final Crisis: Revelations | Strength = Athletic level: Kathy Kane possesses the strength level of a woman her age, size and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise. | Weaknesses = * During the year after the Infinite Crisis, Kane was stabbed in the heart by Bruno Mannheim. Since then, despite therapy and a healthy recovery, scarring remains and she is not as good as she might otherwise be. | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = Batarangs; Bat-club | Notes = * In the Golden Age and Silver Age there was also a Kathy Kane who also became Batwoman. Unlike those histories, this Kathy Kane is not the elder aunt to the first Bat-girl, Betty Kane, who has become now known as Flamebird. Kate Kane is related to the New Earth versions of Kathy Kane and Bette "Flamebird" Kane. Montoya alludes to there being an older Katherine Kane in Kate's family, possibly referring to her stepmother. * In 2007, DC Direct released a Batwoman action figure as part of their 52 series line. | Trivia = * Kate's stepmother is Jewish, and Kate celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas during her childhood. * Kate has a tattoo of the Green Beret sleeve insignia on her right upper arm, presumably inked at some point during the two year training her father arranged for her. * Kate has a tattoo of the Nautical Star on her upper back, which she had inked sometime after her discharge from the US Military Academy but before she became a vigilante. Whilst being a common tattoo and having a broad range of symbolism, the Nautical Star tattoo is commonly associated with the US Navy and Marine Corp. During the 40's it was also started to be used by homosexuals (particularly lesbians) to indicate their sexuality in a discreet manner during a time that homosexuality was frowned upon. http://tattoos.lovetoknow.com/Nautical_Star_Tattoos * Being the heiress of a family whose fortune is comparable to the Waynes, Kate possesses the finances to produce an arsenal of equipment, similar to Batman. * In her civilian identity as a socialite, she is acquainted with Bruce Wayne and is friends with a doctor named Mallory, who treats the Question's cancer and later Kate's stab wound. * At some point, she was kidnapped but rescued by detective Renée Montoya of the GCPD. | Links = }} Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Humans Category:Female Furies members Category:Independently Wealthy Category:Espionage Category:Gadgetry Category:Gymnastics Category:Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic) Category:Military Protocol Category:Surveillance Category:Throwing Category:2006 Character Debuts Category:Jewish